The Other Side

As part of our unit of study about leaders and the civil rights movement, we read the story The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson. The story is about two young girls, one which is white and the other black. The students were asked to reflect and discuss the author's purpose of putting a fence in the story as well as why the author said, at the end of the story, that the fence would someday be knocked down. The students' response are listed below!

Why did the author put a fence in the story?

• the author put a fence in the story because she was telling us that everybody was separated
• the fence was there because they were separated or segregrated
• to separate the whites and the blacks
• why I think the author put the fence in the story is to not have the black and white together
• I think she put a fence because it's called the other side
• she put that in the story because there was a white side and a black side
• because one of the girls was white and the other was black
• maybe because back in the old days they didn't get along
• the author put a fence to represent the injustice of black people
• segregation
• because the black and white people couldn't be/live together
• to separate white and black

Why did the author write that someone is going to knock down the fence?

• she told about the fence being torn down because someday the world will be integrated
• because someday people were going to be integrated
• I think the author said the fence would be knocked down to have different people together
• so white and black were together
• because black and white people should be together someday
• the author wrote that because she was telling us that they were right and it is down this very day
• to integrate
• because we got along
• she wrote that someone would knock down the fence so instead someone would really set things right again
• I think that she said that they're going to knock it down so they can be together
• because people will integrate after the fence is knocked down
• when freedom came they would knock down the fence and they would integrate people